Tortured Souls
by CDV86
Summary: What if Lucas' HCM was discovered years before he could join the Ravens? How would one domino falling out of place cause a chain reaction that changed the lives of not just Lucas, but everyone around him?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** I've messed around with the continuity, with the idea that Lucas being diagnosed with HCM earlier in his life is just a domino falling  & all of the changes are the fallout from that. Some are going to be evident here, some won't show up until later chapters – either simply because of narrative choices, or because they're changes later on in the established OTH canon.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: To Hell With Good Intentions**

A lot can change in 48 hours.

" _This is it, folks - no going back now. The next basket wins it."_

 _Lucas Scott has just brought the score to 14-14 in his one-on-one game with his estranged half-brother, Nathan. The arrogant star player of the Tree Hill Ravens challenged his older 'brother' to the game, finally getting sick of hearing the talk about how good Lucas was, how he was good enough to make the Ravens & maybe even better than Nathan. As far as Nathan was concerned, it was bullshit – if Lucas was as good as they said, he'd already be on the team._

 _The (fittingly) raven haired Scott angrily shoves the ball into the blonde Scott's chest, irate that the street rat had not only refused to roll over & die, but had the audacity to keep fighting back._

" _He's never mentioned you, man -not once in all these years." taunted the younger Scott, in one final attempt to throw his brother off his game._

 _Lucas just looks back at his younger brother, unphased by the words of his brother – after 16 years of neglect, Dan Scott's approval just doesn't mean anything to Lucas. "This is for my mom."_

 _Within seconds, Lucas has managed to maneuver around Nathan into a shooting position, and before the younger Scott can react, fires off a fade away for the win, prompting half of the teenagers stood at the River Court to stand in disbelief that the Ravens' all-star lost to the loser from the River Court, as the other half rush Lucas in pandemonium as they celebrate his win._

48 hours ago, Lucas Scott was nobody. And then he was the unlikely hero, a real life David defeating Goliath. The underdog overcoming all of the odds. If only they knew.

 _As Lucas is rushed by his friends, Nathan just looks on in jealousy – not for the win, but because those kids are treating this victory like a state championship, whilst Nathan would be lucky to get such a reaction if he actually won the State Championship – before sulking off the court without so much as a "good game" to his brother, and brushing past his girlfriend, Peyton Sawyer – a beautiful curly haired blonde with legs that seemingly go on forever – who bites her lip, unsure of what she should do next, before realising that Lucas has broken away from the mob & started making his way over to her._

" _So, what'd you bet?" she asks, already having a guess as to the answer after Nathan claimed that Lucas wanted Peyton if he won._

" _I win, Nathan stays on the team."_

" _Why?" she questions, taken back by the fact that Lucas' prize was something so... benign. She at the very least expected a "I win, you have to kiss me." in response, after Nathan's earlier claim – but it's just yet another reminder of the difference between the two Scott boys._

" _Because it's the last thing he wants." Lucas elaborates, in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "And anyway, it's not about him."_

 _Before Peyton can respond, the two blondes are interrupted by Nathan calling her over, having decided that it's time for them to leave._

" _I'll be seeing you." the boy states, knowing that now he's on the girl's radar. As she backs away, she offers a small nod in acknowledgement, before turning to face the younger Scott – and the one she's actually dating – whilst Lucas watches her walk away, before letting out a breath he didn't realise he was holding._

Today, Lucas Scott is the coward who won't join the Tree Hill Ravens.

At least, that's what people are saying about him.

Lucas Scott _is_ a good basketball player. Great, even. But he's not _one of them._ He's not a Raven, and he's not supposed to be. He's known that since he was 11 years old, when he was diagnosed with a genetic heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, which meant that competitive sports were out of the question.

So they can call him a coward. They don't know the truth.

He'd rather be a coward than be like Nathan, anyway.

Lucas had stood on the River Court & played the game of his life. This is his world, and he knows every inch of it – even with the heart condition, Lucas' skill & tactical mind were able to outplay his arrogant younger brother.

48 hours later, Lucas Scott is standing on the River Court again. He's been there for a few hours, now – just shooting threes. Shooting for clarity.

"I guess misery really does love company."

Lucas doesn't need to turn around to know who it is – he'd recognise that voice anywhere. With that being said, he still turns his head to look at the girl he's not-so-secretly been in love with since he was thirteen.

Peyton Sawyer. As far as Lucas is concerned – and has been since he first started noticing girls – she's easily the most beautiful girl in the world. Not because of her looks (Although he freely admits that she's a total knock out), but because Peyton Sawyer is a paradox unto herself.

He doesn't know why she's there, but he doesn't care why, either – she's there, and that's all that matters. It's only when he notices her pom-poms & cheerleader uniform that he realises that tonight was a game night. The game that apparently half of Tree Hill expected to be his first as part of the Ravens, once word of his defeat of Nathan two nights ago had spread around town.

"Well, you've clearly come to cheer me up." he half-laughs, as as small smirk crosses Peyton's lips.

Lucas fires off another shot, before jogging over to collect the free ball. This time, he doesn't return to the three point line, and just turns to face the blonde beauty standing to the side of the court.

"Nathan know you're here?"

"Nathan's the one who left me here." she responds, sighing in frustration as she does so. Once again, Lucas finds himself questioning how his ass of a brother wound up dating this girl.

"Must have got that from Dan."

"You'd know."

Lucas chuckles to himself & shakes his head. He won't admit it, but he loves the sarcastic back & forth that they share.

"Can I ask you something?" she asks, as she sits down on at the bench next to the black top.

"Shoot."

"Why didn't you join the team? I mean, you're clearly good enough."

"...I don't want to lose sight of what the game means to me. I think the moment you add championships & the need to win every single game, you lose something, y'know? I don't want to join the team and wind up hating the game because it's changed."

He doesn't tell her the real reason. He doesn't say those four simple words, _"...I have a heart condition,"_ which would explain everything away  & remove any lingering doubts. No, he opts for poetic bullshit. She seems to buy it, though. As he talks about not wanting the game to change, Peyton just silently nods, as if she understands.

Lucas doesn't realise it, but he's just described how Nathan had changed from when she first started dating him.

He walks over, and joins her on the bench. They just sit there in silence for a few minutes, neither one being willing to break the silence.

"Come on, I'll give you a ride." he says, as he gets up from the bench.

"It's okay, I can walk."

"Isn't that how all of those urban legends start, with a cheerleader walking home alone late at night? Besides, it can be your good deed for the day."

Peyton raises an eyebrow, looking at the cocky smirk on Lucas' face. "How is you giving me a ride home a good deed on my part?"

"Because that way I know you got home safely, and I won't spend my night worrying about it." he stated, before heading over to the tow truck he had driven to the River Court. A second after he got into the driver's seat, the passenger door opened & Peyton got into the seat next to him.

The two blondes didn't really speak during the drive to Peyton's home. Sure, there was a moment where Lucas briefly thought she was inviting him into her home, but that was just her asking if he wanted to come inside rather than an actual invitation. He could only roll his eyes as Peyton shut the door in his face.

* * *

"It's a rule of life. The prettier the girl, the messier the car. It's a real turn-on, huh?"

Lucas & his Uncle Keith were stood inside Keith Scott Body Shop, looking at the interior of Peyton's Mercury Comet. Hours before his one-on-one game with Nathan, Lucas had been sent out on a service call to River Road, and had only discovered it was Peyton who made the call when he arrived.

Thankfully, Peyton didn't ask what was wrong with the car – if he'd told her that the radiator just needed filling, she would've probably expected her car returned the moment they reached the garage. Or maybe she would've known that it was a simple enough job that Lucas could've done it on site, and she wouldn't need to come back there at all.

Keith wasn't exaggerating when he described the back seat as messy – if anything, he was selling it short. Lucas was just thankful that Peyton hadn't left any food to rot in the car, before he spotted a black folder that was designed to be tied shut by some ribbons that were just hanging loose.

As he carefully opened the folder, Lucas' eyes were immediately drawn to a letter carefully placed at the front of the folder.

* * *

 _Dear **THUD Magazine**_

 _I would like to submit the enclosed artwork for your consideration as a recurring comic strip in **THUD Magazine**. I am a local artist who loves your publication and would appreciate the opportunity to become a regular contributor._

 _I have been developing the idea for this strip for quite sometime and have settled upon a style that I believe to be at once visually evocative and succinct in its story telling. To effectively convey an emotional message in 4 short panels is a challenge, but I think I have uncovered an approach that allows me to express myself as an artist and as a writer, while providing a meaningful commentary on the "status quo."_

 _I would appreciate any feedback that you may have to offer on the artwork and the concept._

* * *

At that moment, Lucas realised exactly what it was in his hands – Peyton's portfolio. As he started looking over the artwork, revealing the long legged blonde's displeasure with her life amongst the pretty & the popular, he didn't notice the footsteps approaching him until it was too late.

"Those are my sketches!" Peyton shouted at Lucas, as she snatched the folder out of his hands & in the process caused the boy to spin around to face her.

"Um… I wasn't looking."

He had no idea why he said that – it was an incredibly blatant lie.

"This is personal." Peyton responded, a look on her face that almost looked like she was upset that Lucas had the audacity to criticise her artwork. "Alright, I don't read your diary!"

"I don't have a diary." he lamely responded.

"No? 'Dear Diary, my daddy doesn't love me.'" she mockingly spoke, with venom in her eyes. "P.S. Stay out of my stuff!"

And with that, Peyton stomped away from the garage, with Lucas watching her every step of the way with a forlorn look on his face, before a faint smile crossed his lips – he was starting to figure the beautiful blonde out.

After leaving the garage, Lucas found himself clearing tables at his mother's cafe – something that wasn't unusual for the boy, helping out at the garage until Keith closed up shop & dealt with the day's paperwork before heading to the cafe to help out with the evening rush. As he cleared a table, Lucas happened to spot something in the corner of his eye – Peyton Sawyer.

The offices to THUD magazine were situated across the street to the cafe, and Lucas watched as his crush put her hand on the door, before having second thoughts & ultimately walking over to a nearby garbage can, where she dumped her portfolio before leaving. After waiting for a minute to say if she came back, Lucas snuck out of the cafe & retrieved the folder.

* * *

The next day, Peyton returned to the garage to collect her car & pay the bill. Neither blonde said a word to one another, Peyton was clearly still pissed about the previous day. Without a word, Lucas handed her the forms she needed to sign off the work done to her car (Unfortunately, Keith couldn't bill her for the removal of the crap cluttering he back seat, which was the bulk of the work), and dropped her keys – and portfolio – on to the counter.

"What are you, stalking me?!" she asked incredulously.

"I thought someone should see them."

"Well, it's none of your business."

Lucas groaned in frustration – God, this girl was stubborn – before he responded. "You know what? You're right. It's none of my business. I wouldn't know anything about it."

"I know you don't." she responds, before taking her cue to leave. This time, however, Lucas gets up from behind the counter and follows her.

"Look, just tell me why you didn't submit them. Your stuff is good." he said, sincerely.

"It's not good enough." Peyton mumbled under her breath, not realising that Lucas was still close enough to hear.

"Look, Peyton, why not?" he questioned, prompting her to turn around.

"I want to draw something that means something to someone. You know, I want to draw blind faith or a fading summer or… just a moment of clarity. It's like when you go and you see a really great band live for the first time, you know, and nobody's saying it but everybody's thinking it- 'We have something to believe in again.' I want to draw that feeling. But, I can't. And if I can't be great at it then I don't want to ruin it. It's too important to me."

Peyton spoke with passion about her art, a passion Lucas hadn't seen from her before & would wager very few people had been privy to. But he understood every single word & emotion that came out of her mouth, and he didn't just feel like he understand Peyton Sawyer a little bit more than he used to, but he felt like... They were connected. Like she'd just reached into his head and pulled out a thought or feeling hidden deep within his subconsciousness.

"Yep. Me too." he simply responded, prompting Peyton to momentarily turn back around to look at him in confusion – he wasn't talking about basketball, so how could he possibly know what she was feeling?

For a moment, Peyton considered asking Lucas what he meant, but she ultimately decided against it and got behind the wheel of her beloved Comet for the first time in days.

"Hey, what about your sketch book?"

"They don't mean anything to anyone, do they?" she flippantly questioned as she turned the key in the ignition and drove away.

She was wrong.

They meant something to him.

* * *

Later, Lucas was sat in Karen's Cafe going through Peyton's sketchbook again. And then he found it: A moment of clarity.

In amongst the various sketches that showed Peyton's distaste for the shallow life everyone assumed she led as the cheerleader dating the star of the high school basketball team, was a drawing of numerous faceless bodies, all dressed the same – except for one. The words "THEY ARE NOT YOU" were written at the top of the image.

Within moments, Lucas has exited the Cafe & dashed across the road, as the final editor left THUD's offices for the day. She might not believe in her art, but he does.

"Hey, could you take a look at these? You won't be disappointed." Lucas says as he hands Peyton's portfolio over to the editor.

Before the editor could take note of Lucas' features, the blonde teen had headed off into the dusk that was now falling over Tree Hill.

Sometime later, Lucas found himself stood on the front porch of the Sawyer family residence, knocking on the front door. He'd been there for nearly ten minutes – he knows that someone's home, he can see a bedroom light on, and he swears that he faintly can hear the echo of a NOFX album coming from within the building.

Eventually, he gets a response. He's guessing that Peyton probably didn't hear him knocking, and is either expecting someone or on her way out. Either way, she's not going to expecting him to be standing on her door step.

"You'd think that you'd get the hint after nearly 20 minutes."

Okay, he was wrong.

"I owe you an apology, I shouldn't have gone through your artwork." he says sincerely, prompting a small smile to cross Peyton's lips.

"Thanks. And just so we're clear, that's not an invitation to come into my house."

Lucas throws his head and lets out a groaning laugh as Peyton smirks at him.

"I'll see you at school, Luke." she says as she goes to close the door.

"Peyton, wait!" he blurts out, getting her to stop. She doesn't say anything in response, she just looks over at him, an eyebrow arched out of interest as to what else he had to say.

"Your art matters. It's what got me here."

As Lucas speaks, he pulls something out of his backpack – a collection of papers held together by a bulldog clip, and hands them to the confused girl, who briefly looks the curious item over.

"What is this?"

"You have your art, I have my writing."

Peyton looks up at him, her surprise evident on her face.

"Lucas Scott, the writer – who knew?"

Lucas could have sworn that she sounded impressed. Maybe. Possibly a little. He hoped.

"No one."

"How do you know I won't just put these up all over school?"

Lucas smiles, somewhat weakly, at her. "I don't."

With that gesture, Lucas simply walks away & leaves a still somewhat stunned Peyton standing on her doorstep, before she headed back inside.

She had some reading to do.

* * *

" _To Hell With Good Intentions" by Mclusky, from the album 'Mclusky Do Dallas'_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Taken For A Ride**

"Who do you think you are?!"

"...Someone you're pissed at."

"You submitted my sketches to THUD magazine."

It was after first period, when Peyton finally confronted Lucas about submitting her artwork to THUD magazine. It had been a few days since they'd last spoken on her porch, and suddenly Lucas was almost regretting giving his writing to Peyton – if only because he was now worried about her posting his stories around school in an attempt at getting some payback.

Peyton had stormed over the moment she saw him, seemingly furious that he would betray her like that. However, both blondes knew that Lucas' actions weren't a betrayal, but because he had unbending faith in Peyton's work. She was more upset that he submitted them for her, rather than than him submitting them behind her back – especially since they'd called her in for a meeting.

"And they liked them, didn't they?" asked the boy, with a slightly cocky smile on his face that only served to further irritate the girl.

"If I wanted your help, I would ask for it." she said, still glaring at him.

"We both know that's not true." he practically sighed in apathy as he responded. Peyton was finding that her protests that Lucas didn't know her were holding less & less ground.

"Hey, P. Sawyer!"

Grateful for the escape route, Peyton shook her head at Lucas in irritation & went in the direction of the overly cheerly voice that had called out for her.

"You're welcome!" Lucas sarcastically shouted after her.

Peyton finally caught up with the person who had called out to her on the quad – Brooke Davis. Head cheerleader, overly perky, and – somewhat inexplicably, in the eyes of everyone who only knew the girls by their reputations – Peyton's best friend.

"What was that about?" questioned the brunette, always eager for the latest gossip. Especially when the gossip involved attractive guys.

"Doesn't matter." responded the blonde, as she tried to mask her earlier frustrations with Lucas. The two girls walked in silence for a few moments, before Brooke decided she didn't appreciate the quiet.

"So, that's the boy that beat Nathan?"

Peyton simply nodded in response. She knew that Brooke already knew who Lucas was – even before the one-on-one game, Lucas was widely known around Tree Hill as the unwanted bastard of Dan Scott, the legendary former Tree Hill Raven & all around town hero, a status that anyone who knew Dan thought was ridiculous.

"Y'know, it's really too bad that Lucas is poor and he won't play on the team, because he is fine." said Brooke, with a lustful tone in her voice. "What's the deal with you two, anyway?"

"There isn't one." responded the blonde, as she rolled her eyes in irritation.

"Okay, but he's clearly into you."

If there was one thing Brooke knew, it was who was into who.

"...So?" questioned Peyton, exasperation clear in her voice.

"Do you like him?" Brooke replied, a smirk present on her face as she spoke in a teasing tone.

"You remember that there's this guy named Nathan, who's also called my boyfriend, right?" came Peyton's response, almost incredulous that Brooke was asking if Peyton was attracted to her boyfriend's brother.

"That's not a real answer!"

"So why don't you date him? I mean, if you're so interested in someone dating him."

"Ew, no. I can't be seen with the boy who refuses to join the team."

"But I can?" mockingly questioned Peyton

Brooke rolled her eyes.

"You know that's not what I meant. It's just... You both have that brooding loner thing going on, you could totally just sit in a dark room & brood together for a date!"

Brooke spoke as if that made perfect sense.

"Y'know, I'm beginning to think you just want me out of the way so you can date Nathan." sarcastically responded the blonde girl.

Brooke snorted in laughter as Peyton spoke. "And break Girl Code? Not gonna happen."

* * *

Despite her earlier chastising of Lucas for submitting her sketches to THUD Magazine, Peyton somehow found herself sitting in the office of Jeff Nelson, one of the magazine's editors. As he looks through Peyton's artwork, she can't help but anxiously pick at one of her fingers (A bad habit picked up from her mom) as she awaits his response.

"Interesting." Jeff muses, before looking up from the sketches to the artist behind them. "Where have you studied?"

"...Mostly in my bedroom." the blonde nervously responds.

"Huh."

"Is that a bad thing?" she questions, prompting Jeff to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"No." he flatly responds. "Just surprising for someone with your talent."

A proud smile finds it's way on to Peyton's face, before she quickly lets her nerves drown it anxiety.

"Well, your stuff is great. I do have a few concerns, though. You're younger than I expected, and we have firm deadlines to make a press run."

"Give me a deadline. I'll meet it." the blonde confidently states.

Jeff takes a moment, seemingly to consider the offer.

"All right, then how about a test strip? Uh, use your high school characters, but, give them a twist."

"A twist?"

"The way you portray high school, the girls are so tragic." he says, matter-of-factly. "Don't get me wrong, I like it. But, the magazine wants wish fulfillment. You know, pretty, popular, like a…

"A cheerleader?" Peyton finishes his sentence, struggling to hide her disdain as she does so. To her credit, Jeff doesn't seem to pick up on it.

"Perfect. Cheerleaders are always happy."

Peyton can only put a fake smile on her face & try not to roll her eyes in response. She can't help but think back to Lucas' previous comment about her being the least cheery cheerleader he knew.

* * *

A few hours after their confrontation in the hallway, Lucas was approached by Peyton at the River Court. He'd found himself back there once again, but this time he wasn't shooting for clarity. He just needed to get away from the dirty looks that people kept throwing his way after it became clear that he had no intention of joining the basketball team. The sad thing was that he knew exactly what those same people would say if his heart gave out in the middle of a game.

" _Oh, that poor boy."_

" _What kind of selfish jackass joins the basketball team when he knows he has a potentially fatal heart condition?!"_

As Peyton approached Lucas, he wondered if he should ask for her thoughts on his writing. After a moment, he decided not to – there was no guarantee that she'd read anything yet, and besides, he'd offered up his opinion on her art freely. Hopefully, she'd do the same.

"Hey. I just wanted to tell you I'm not doing the comic strip."

"That's a mistake." he says, with more anger in his voice than he intended.

"Yeah, well maybe some people aren't ready to expose themselves to the world." she responds in the same tone that Lucas had just used. "You should be able to understand that."

"Maybe you are ready, but you're just scared." Lucas responds in that same tone of voice as he fires off another three pointer into the basket, before sighing as he retrieves the ball. "Well, did you at least meet with them?" he questions in a more understanding tone of voice.

"Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the editor loved my stuff. He just wanted me to change it into something totally different."

The irony that Peyton was effectively giving him the same bullshit reason he had given her for not joining the team, albeit sincerely, wasn't lost on him. Clearly, the universe was playing a sick joke on him – he couldn't argue against her reasoning without giving up the one skeleton in his closet that he didn't want to let out.

"It's really not that big of a deal, I guess I just... I just wanted to say thanks."

"Wow, did Peyton Sawyer say thank you?"

A small smile started to appear on Peyton's lips after Lucas' teasing. He noticed, but didn't say anything.

"I've been reading those stories you gave me."

And with that one sentence, Lucas managed to completely miss the hoop, much to Peyton's amusement as he groaned in frustration that she had to see that.

"Nice shot." she said with a smirk on her face.

"Nice legs." he responded, in the exact same tone of voice.

"So, what'd you think?" questioned the boy as he went to retrieve his ball.

"It wasn't really a nice shot." she teasingly smirked, speaking in a mock-sincere tone of voice – Lucas could only roll his eyes as he picked up his ball. "I'm only about a quarter of the way through what you gave me, but... In terms of your actual writing, it's all pretty good. Some of the stories are kinda cliché, but there's been a few where it was obviously something written out of passion or from experience – and those are easily your best stuff. You really need to find a better villain than Nathan, though."

"That obvious?"

"Oh yeah." she laughed. Lucas was actually kinda relieved that she was laughing – he would have thought that she'd have been pretty pissed off about his using her boyfriend as the basis for the villain in some of his stories.

"Why do you stay with him, anyway?"

He didn't intend to ask that, he kinda blurted it out.

After a few seconds, Peyton finally answered. "Sometimes it's good; sometimes there's no-one else."

"No offence, but shouldn't it be good most of the time?" he questioned, immediately kicking himself for asking such a jackass question. She doesn't respond, but she knows he's right – and she's convinced that he knows that she knows that, too.

There's no goodbye, Peyton just turns to leave. Lucas watches her walk away, in part because he wanted to check out her legs - they really are nice. He calls out after her, as she gets back into her car.

"That editor's wrong."

He doesn't see the smile on her face when she hears those words.

* * *

A day after being given a deadline & told to put a twist on her artwork, Peyton found herself marching back into THUD Magazine's offices, where she slid an overhead print of her first comic strip, 'The High School Fearleader,' on top of the photographs that Jeff Nelson was looking over to include in the next issue.

"Hey." he says in greeting, silently noting that Peyton ignored the request for her to put a twist on the comic.

"This is who I am. This is how I am. And ninety five percent of the time there isn't a moral, or a victory, or a silver lining. Take it or leave it."

"And if we leave it?" he questions.

"...If you leave it then you'll miss that other five percent. Your mistake." she states, before walking away.

She doesn't notice the impressed look on Jeff's face. If she had done, she'd probably questioning if the whole point was to see what her character was like, or if she'd changed his mind.

Either way, it didn't matter – THUD printed her first comic in their next issue.

* * *

Lucas didn't really see her after that conversation at the River Court, until he walks into the cafe that Saturday. The Ravens won last night, so the town is buzzing, and for a moment, it seems that Tree Hill has officially moved from Lucas' refusal to join the team – Lucas notes that he'll have to thank Skills for that later.

He doesn't even realise she's there – Why would he? Peyton Sawyer had never stepped foot in Karen's Cafe before. Instead, Lucas' eyes are immediately drawn to the girl working the counter after the noon rush has subsided.

"Hey, Hales."

She doesn't respond. She just smiles & jerks her head to the side.

"...What are you doing?"

Haley just continues jerking her head to the side. Repeatedly.

"Did you eat raw coffee beans again?"

Finally, the brunette just sighs in frustration before reaching over the counter & grabbing Lucas by his shoulders & physically forcing him to turn to his right. It's then that he sees Peyton, sat on her on at a corner table that's placed just perfectly that you can't really see the table from outside of the cafe.

"Go talk to your imaginary girlfriend, Lucas." she speaks in a hushed tone, so Peyton wouldn't overhear – Haley's known about her best friend's crush on the blonde since pretty much the beginning, and has teased him mercilessly about it.

She's also probably Lucas' biggest supporter when it comes to him potentially the cheerleader.

"Why are we friends?" he groans in exasperation.

"No-one else would have you." she smirked, prompting Lucas to roll his eyes as he walks over to Peyton.

Lucas couldn't help but wonder why Peyton was there. Yes, they'd been seeing a lot (Comparatively) of each other recently, but they were always at neutral places – Tree Hill High, or the River Court (Lucas may have considered it his world, but it _was_ a public park) – unless there was a reason.

Like her needing to collect her car from the garage.

Or his decision to show his writing to her.

"Bad day?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Okay."

"...Do you want a coffee, or something? I mean, you _are_ sat in a cafe."

"I don't have my wallet."

Of _course_ she has a wallet  & not a purse.

"It's okay. Neither do I." he says, teasingly. A small smile appears on her face, appreciative of his attempt to cheer her up. He knows that she knows that this is his mom's place, and he also knows that she wouldn't be here unless she was trying to avoid someone who would never step foot in the cafe – like her boyfriend.

"Black, no sugar."

Peyton doesn't take her eyes off Lucas as he walks back to the counter & places the order with Haley. She can't hear them, but she knows they're talking about her. Considering that Tree Hill is a small town, she guesses that word has spread & they're talking about last night. Fucking typical.

After a minute, Peyton realises that they _can't_ be talking about that, seeing as... Well, they honestly aren't acting like they would be – there's no looks of pity thrown her way, just the occasional glance from one of the two that would be more fitting if they were talking about Lucas' blatant crush on her.

A minute later, Lucas is walking back over to Peyton, with two to-go cups in his hands.

"You're hiding from Nathan, aren't you? I mean, I assume that's what you're doing, since he'd never step foot in here." says the boy as he passes Peyton her cup, with a wry smile on his face.

"Not hiding, more... avoiding."

"Come with me."

"...Why?" questions the curly blonde, looking at Lucas with an arched eyebrow.

"Because I know a better hiding place, and we'll be able to talk without Haley listening in." he responds, with a knowing smirk on his face.

"I am not listening!" protests the brunette girl, unwittingly outing herself to the amusement of the two blondes. "Okay, I was. I am."

Peyton doesn't need any further encouragement, and gets up to follow Lucas out of the cafe, only for him to take her by the hand & lead her into the back area of the cafe, and up to the roof of the building.

The sight there astonishes Peyton – a 9 hole miniature golf course has been built on top of the cafe, and decorated with leftover fairy lights from Christmas.

"Me & Hales built this a few years ago – I mean, Keith & her dad helped with some of the actual construction, but..." he trails off, answering the question he (correctly) expected Peyton to be on the verge of asking.

Peyton took a few moments to take everything in, before plopping down onto a bench in the corner of the roof. The roof isn't a breathtaking sight, but it's certainly unexpected. Lucas sits next to her, making sure to leave enough space so that she knows that he's not making a move on her.

Peyton scooches over, so that there's less of a gap, but Lucas doesn't really notice.

"So, what'd Nathan do now?" asks Lucas, before taking a sip out of his mug.

"I really shouldn't be talking to you about this."

"Why not? You & I both know that Nathan's not really my brother – at least, not in any meaningful way."

She nods, simply because there's no way she can really disagree with that sentiment.

"Might as well tell you, you'll hear all about it soon enough..." she grumbles, before going into detail on what led her to the cafe this morning.

* * *

 _The Ravens won once again, maintaining their undefeated record for the season. To celebrate, Dan Scott's beach house has been commandeered by his son for a wild night of debauchery – clearly, Nathan hasn't learnt from the last time he threw a party, and got half of the team suspended._

 _It's barely been 10 minutes, and already there are empty plastic cups littering the floor. Brooke, normally the life of the party, storms over to a group consisting of Peyton, Nathan, and a few other members of the basketball team & cheer squad – she's holding the latest issue of THUD magazine, and she's not happy._

" _Have you guy's seen this?" she asks, holding the magazine in front of her pointing to a specific piece on one of the pages. At first, Peyton finds herself (And she's not the only one to do so) questioning why Brooke Davis was reading a magazine at a party, but then she notices what her best friend was pointing at._

 _Her comic strip._

" _The High School Fearleader – it's a comic strip." Brooke explains, before suddenly realising the point of the comic – almost as if saying it out loud made it click inside her brain. "Wait, this is insulting, right?!"_

" _My dog can draw better than this." mumbles Vegas, one of the members of the team._

" _Really, what guy keeps his hat on during sex?" questioned Brooke, who completely missed the look that Nathan threw in Peyton's direction as she spoke. "Who is this 'Saki' person, anyway?"_

" _Yeah, I wonder." said Nathan, flatly as he continued to stare at Peyton._

" _It's just a stupid comic strip. Who cares, right?" said Peyton, trying to defuse the situation._

" _It's more like sucky." complained Brooke, who was taking the comic as a personal attack on her character. "Whoever it is doesn't know the first thing about it. It's like, so..."_

" _Shallow?" interrupted Peyton, albeit unwittingly & in the process drawing the attention of the rest of the group._

* * *

"So I'm confused." interrupted Lucas. "You want to be anonymous… and you let the world watch you on a web cam."

"The world isn't watching me…" responded Peyton, before looking over at Lucas with a teasing smirk on her face. "But I guess you are."

"Okay, the point is…" he said as he rolled his eyes whilst trying (and failing – damn his short hair) to hide his blushing cheeks from Peyton. "You want to express yourself but you don't want people to know it's you."

"I guess I'm just a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a bitch." she replied, as she took a drink from her mug.

"Or maybe just a tortured artist."

"Says the tortured writer."

* * *

 _Peyton ducked outside on to the balcony a few minutes ago, after a tipsy Brooke decided the group should play 'I Never'. Peyton Sawyer knows what her best friend's like when she drinks, and she knows that Brooke's shortly going to be switching from "Tipsy & Flirty" to "Drunk & Bitchy" - which will lead to her 'I never...'s becoming things that people don't want to admit to._

 _Like "I never had feelings for my boyfriend's brother."_

 _As Nathan skulks around the party, he finds his best friend – well, maybe 'lacky' is a more accurate term than 'best friend' – Tim rummaging through a video cabinet, looking for a tape to put on._

" _Nathan! I can't believe your parents don't have any decent porn!" he whined._

 _Everyone knows that if Tim wasn't on the basketball team, he'd be on the lowest rung of the social ladder – even accounting for his position on the team, Tim's still pretty low on that ladder._

" _That's gross, Tim. Just put one of the game tapes on."_

 _Looking in the cabinet, Tim notices that most of the tapes are from Dan Scott's glory days. It's kinda pathetic, really. Eventually, he spots one with Nathan's footage on & shoves it into the VCR._

 _Nathan, on the other hand, has headed out onto the balcony to find out why his girlfriend has been avoiding him._

" _Peyt, what are you doing out here?"_

" _Just enjoying the quiet." she mumbles, before a cheer erupts from inside the house._

" _Clearly." Nathan sarcastically replies. "What are you really doing?"_

" _Nothing, I just... I just like the view, is all." she flatly states._

" _It's a great view. It's even better when you're bent over in front of me." smirks Nathan, thinking he was pretty smooth there. Peyton can only wonder if she would have ever hooked up with Nathan if alcohol wasn't involved._

" _Not happening." she states, her irritation clear in her tone of voice._

" _Peyt, come on." whined Nathan._

" _And stop calling me 'Peyt' – you know I don't like that name." she snaps at him, before getting up and starting to walk further down the balcony._

 _Before Nathan can respond, a shout from inside the beach house catches both of their attention._

" _Dude, you've gotta see this! It's Nathan having sex with Peyton!"_

" _Oh my God!" Peyton whispers, in utter horror, before glaring at Nathan & running into the house. Nathan sits there oblivious for a moment, struggling to remember if he ever made a sex tape with Peyton, before the penny finally drops._

" _Shit!"_

 _And with that, he runs in after Peyton._

 _By the time either one of them reaches the TV, there's a large crowd gathered & taking cheering as the tape plays, and Peyton struggles to push her way through to the TV – and of course the drunk Brooke Davis is at the front of the crowd, enjoying the show._

" _SHUT IT OFF!" she screams, alerting people to her presence. "SHUT! IT! OF..."_

 _Peyton's voice trails off, as the Nathan in the video moves over to the side, allowing the camera a clear view of who was with him._

 _The entire room falls silent, as everyone realises who it is._

 _Brooke Davis._

 _The drunk brunette suddenly sobers up as she sees herself on the tape, and looks around the crowd with a mortified look on her face, before she sees Peyton._

" _Peyton, I-"_

 _Before Brooke could even finish her sentence, she was met with the enraged Peyton Sawyer's fist in her eye._

* * *

"And then I left. Figured this was the one place that my cheating ex-boyfriend & my whore of an ex-friend wouldn't think to look." Peyton finished, as Lucas sat there, stunned by what he'd heard.

He knew Nathan was an ass, but this was a new low. This was "Dan Scott" low.

"Luke... Can you just sit with me for a while?" she asked.

Lucas put his mug on the table behind them, and wrapped his arm around Peyton's shoulder before pulling her into a hug. He didn't say anything, because he knew he couldn't find the right words.

"We're friends, right?" Peyton mumbled, a few minutes later.

"I hadn't thought about it before, but... I guess we are." he replied, speaking softly as he did so.

* * *

" _Taken For A Ride" by AM Radio, from the album 'Radioactive'_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** If you're worried that I'm just throwing Brooke under the bus or ditching Naley by bringing forward the discovery of the sex tape - I have a plan. Trust in the plan.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: How Good It Can Be**

All in all, it had been a couple of hours before Lucas & Peyton finally came down from the roof – neither one of them realised how long they were up there until they noticed the sun starting to go down. Unfortunately, Haley _had_ realised how long they were up there.

"Maybe next time, we could actually get a game of golf in." Peyton smirked, as the two blondes made their way back into the cafe.

"Oh, so you're planning on a next time?" Lucas responded, a teasing tone in his voice before he remembered what had led to the last few hours in the first place. "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I knew what you mean, dummy. I'll see you at school." she interrupted, not wanting him to beat himself up over his (kinda adorable) attempt at flirting with her, before heading through the door, only stopping briefly to smile over at Lucas, as he sat down at the counter. "Lucas? Thanks."

Peyton left before Lucas could respond. As he turned away from the door, he found a smirking Haley on the other side of the counter, having seemingly popped up from nowhere – she hadn't, Lucas was just too oblivious to anyone other than Peyton being in the room.

"Gah! Heart condition, remember?"

"Oh, shut up. Like you hadn't already taken your heart pills before your afternoon long make out session with Peyton Sawyer."

"I wish." Lucas mumbled under his breath.

"I know." teased Haley, before reverting to a more serious tone. "What was going on with her, anyway?"

"It's... a long story that I don't really think I should be telling you, even if you'll probably hear about it by the end of school on Monday. And all we did was talk." Lucas stated, completely honestly.

He leaves out the fact that they only spoke for about half an hour, and spent the rest of the afternoon with his arm wrapped around her in a hug.

"Anything to do with why he-who-shall-not-be-named-junior was wandering in & out of every place in Tree Hill where he would think Peyton would be?"

"...Did he come in here?" Lucas asked, apprehensively.

"He looked like he thought about it, but just wandered off. I'm guessing that was why you went to the roof?"

"Lucas, when did you get here?"

Before he could respond to Haley, Lucas was interrupted by his mother, who had been finishing up in the kitchen. Karen Roe-Scott was a lot of things – mother, entrepreneur, wife, member of the PTA – but she was also one of the strongest & most compassionate people you could hope to meet. At the same time that she was a high school graduate raising a newborn on her own after the father abandoned her & her family disowned, she was opening up a small business. That small business had, nearly seventeen years later, grown into _the_ coffee shop in Tree Hill.

"All afternoon. He was up on the roof with _Peyton Sawyer_." Haley cut him off, before switching to a sing-songy voice as she said Peyton's name – everyone in Lucas' family  & circle of friends knew about his long standing crush on the curly blonde, and they were all too eager to tease him about it.

"I hate you, Hales."

"No, you don't."

"No, but I'm thinking about it." grumbled Lucas, having dropped his head onto the counter in embarrassment at Haley's continued teasing.

"Relax, honey. Haley's just teasing you because we all know how long you've had a crush on her."

"Can we stop talking about this?" Lucas whined, oblivious to the door to the cafe opening.

"Stop talking about what?"

Lucas knew better than to get his hopes up. His Uncle Keith was never one to pass up an opportunity to tease Lucas over his crush, as much as he adored the broody blonde boy – Keith had really been the one constant in Karen & Lucas' life after she found out she was pregnant, and had pretty much raised the boy as if he were his own son.

At least, until Lucas was 12 – when Keith formally adopted Lucas as his own, and married Karen. In all honesty, Lucas considered the one silver to his HCM diagnosis to be that it prompted his mother & uncle to finally admit their feelings for one another (It was a 'life is short' deal), and they got married a year later. Now, nearly 5 years later, they had a daughter of their own – Lily, a 2 & a half year old who absolutely adored her big brother 'Lukey' to the point that her first word was his name rather than one of her parents.

"Lucas' on-going one sided love affair with Peyton Sawyer."

"Oh. That. Well, at least he's spoken to her now." smirked the elder Scott.

"They were making out on the roof all afternoon."

"No, we weren't. Seriously, stop telling people that."

"Bob, up!" called out a little voice behind the counter, prompting Haley to turn around & pick up the source of the intrusion - a small brunette girl who looked like a miniature version of her mother, but with a softer version of her father's chin, who's eyes lit up the moment she saw Lucas.

"Hi Lukey!" the little girl beamed at her big brother.

"Hiya, Lils. You been good today?"

"Yeah." she happily nodded.

"You think Mom, Dad & _Bob_ should stop picking on me, right?" questioned the blonde boy, putting particular emphasis on Bob, purely because Haley Bob James _loathed_ being called by her middle name by anyone other than the small Scott – she once gave Lucas a black eye for simply saying the first syllable.

After a few seconds (seemingly) pondering, Lily just smiled at her big brother & shook her head as she replied "No." - an action which prompted everyone else to burst out laughing, except Lucas who reacted in mock betrayal at his sister's choice.

* * *

It had been a few days since the "Brathan" sex tape leaked, as it had been dubbed by the student body.

Peyton had made it very clear to Nathan that they were history by Sunday evening, simply turning up at his house & dumping all of the crap he'd left at her house onto his front door step. Even though he expected it, he still tried to salvage his relationship in the only way he knew how – blame everything on Dan.

" _Peyton, I'm sorry, okay?! It's just... My dad's been riding me a lot lately, and-"_

" _Like you riding my best friend in your home movies? Piss off, Nathan."_

Of course, cutting Nathan out was the easy part – Peyton's relationship with him was purely motivated by sex at that point. There was no emotional connection, so removing Nathan from her life simply meant Peyton wasn't getting laid at the moment. Brooke, on the other hand... That was a life long friendship that had been destroyed.

Peyton skipped on the Monday, trying to avoid the immediate fallout of the sex tape, and was thankful that she didn't have any classes with Brooke on the Tuesday, so she was able to avoid her for most of the day... Except the cheerleaders had practice after school, and as Brooke was head cheerleader, there was no escape.

Especially when Brooke was waiting for her outside her locker, as usually was the case before practice.

"Unbelievable..." Peyton spat out, before turning around in the other direction.

"Peyton." Brooke called after her, before quickly making her way down the hallway after Peyton to close the distance between them. "Peyton, I am so sorry, okay?"

"Sorry?! You slept with- No, you _made a goddamn sex tape_ with my boyfriend, Brooke! Saying that you're sorry isn't going to fix this!"

"Well, what else do you want me to say?"

"I want you to say 'Punch me in the face again, Peyton. Please, I deserve it.' but that's not happening so..." the curly blonde replied with a mocking sarcasm in her voice.

"You guys were broken up!" protested the brunette. It was Brooke's last resort, in all honesty.

"You can keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better, but you're a backstabbing whore and you know it."

"...Peyton, practice is the other way." Brooke responded after a moment, upon realising the two girls had been walking in the complete opposite direction of the gym.

"I know. I quit, and I have nothing left to say to you." she said flatly, leaving Brooke dumbfounded momentarily & allowing Peyton to escape, and finally double back to her locker to get her sketch book before heading to the safety of her Comet.

Needless to say, she was surprised when she actually got to her car.

"Lucas, why are you in my car?"

The blonde boy's attention was immediately redirected from his book, and he could only grin sheepishly at Peyton as she looked at him incredulously.

"...Because my other options where sit on top of the car or on the floor? Sorry, I just wanted to see how you were doing after the other day & I figured I'd..." Lucas trailed off, as he caught a glimpse of the clock in the Comet's dashboard. "Is practice over already?"

"I, ah, I quit."

"So, aside from quitting the cheerleaders, how are you doing?" he asked, as he climbed out of the Comet by literally climbing over the side of the car.

Peyton just shrugged. "I'll let you know when I figure it out."

* * *

In her room, Peyton was sat at her desk as she works on another sketch, as "Glad To Be Alive" by Low Flying Owls practically vibrated through the walls of her house. Suddenly, the phone rang, and the answering machine automatically picked up after she ignored the ringing.

" _Congratulations, you've reached Peyton. You know what to do."_

"Peyton, I'm sorry, okay?! Please, just let me-"

Upon hearing the pleading voice of her now former best friend, Peyton picked up her phone, and answered the call before immediately hanging up before Brooke could even register the call being picked up, & returned her attention to her sketch.

This only lasted for a few moments, however. Soon enough, Peyton had thrown her sketchbook on to her desk in frustration, having become distracted by something in the corner of her eye - a photograph of her & Nathan, back from when they had first started dating. Both teenagers were captured happily smiling, as Peyton jumped onto the back of her boyfriend.

After a moment of getting lost in the memory & a faint smile appearing on her face, Peyton recalled all of the crap Nathan had put her through since then, and the smile was replaced by a scowl. With those bad feelings on her mind once again, Peyton snatched the framed picture up off her desk, and started removing the photograph from the frame.

* * *

"Come one, come all, to the Tree Hill annual Burning Boat festival! Burn your bad karma, bad luck, or bad choices and start anew! We'll be collecting items all week; nothing is too big, too small, too tragic, or too trivial!"

Making their way to the boardwalk to check out the burning boat, Lucas & Haley passed through a makeshift market where various trinkets & nik-naks were being sold. The market wasn't the only change that had been made – the boardwalk was now decorated with white fairy lights hanging from trees, lamp posts & the various market stalls.

"You ever wonder if people rummage through the Burning Boat to see if anyone's put something nice in there?" mused the brunette girl, prompting an astonished laugh from her best friend.

"You mean so they could steal it?"

"Yeah! I mean, okay – it'd probably just redistribute the bad karma, but..."

The two teenagers burst into laughter at the idea, Haley ultimately dropping that train of thought after applying logic to it.

"Looks like I won't be stealing you something nice from the boat, then." chuckled Lucas, as their laughter died down.

"You know, I'm gonna try not to lose sleep over that, thanks." Haley snickered, before the two best friends relaxed into an easy silence. Once they were a few feet away from the boat, Haley decided the silence had gone on long enough.

"So, last night, I'm watching Scandinavian week on the history channel, and I-"

"Why?"

"Because… blonde Viking guys are hot." Haley replied, holding back a laugh as she spoke – Lucas could only roll his eyes as he chuckled under his breath. "Anyway, this whole Burning Boat thing is a total rip-off of a Viking funeral. Did you know that?"

"You know, you're the bomb."

Before he could respond, Lucas found himself being cut-off by another kid – from what was being said, it was clear that this was one of the students that Haley had been working with at the Tutor Centre & that Haley's efforts had paid off. As Haley & the boy – Brandon – talked about his work & how he was putting his last report card on the Burning Boat, Lucas couldn't help but think about Peyton, and how the catharsis of setting her regrets on fire might do her some good.

He didn't get too long to think about it, as he found himself being pulled into Haley & Brandon's conversation.

"...don't know how many tutors, and this girl's a miracle worker." Brandon said to Lucas, the blonde missing the first part of the sentence due to his being distracted. He still gathered the gist of the conversation, though.

"No, this is all you, man." Haley responded, as she returned Brandon's test to him. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks, Haley. See ya."

"Yes! I knew he could do it! Yes!"

"Nice work, Hales."

"Thank you." she happily squeaked out.

"Hi."

The two friends looked in the direction of the newcomer with confused expressions on their faces, at least for a moment before they realised it was Peyton Sawyer, leather jacket & all.

"Peyton, hey. Oh, you remember Haley, right?"

"Hey, so what bad mojo are you throwing into the pot?"

At Haley's prompting, Peyton reached into one of the pockets on her leather jacket & pulled out a picture of her & Nathan, back from when they first started dating. The two friends couldn't help but notice the happy expressions on the couple's faces.

"Not getting back together this time." the curly blonde noted, before placing the picture amongst the assorted items "donated" by the residents of Tree Hill, as Haley waved her hand over the picture as if she was casting some sort of spell to ward off the evil spectre of Peyton's former relationship.

"So, are we going to watch this together, or what?" questioned the boy, as he leant back against the boat so that both girls were in his line of sight.

"Not like I have other plans."

"Maybe." Haley responded, uncertainty in her voice. "I have to, uh, check my schedule. You know, the word around town is that I'm, um…" Haley paused, as Lucas flashed her a confused look, "the bomb!"

As Haley walked away, the two blondes burst out laughing & followed after her.

"What was that about?" Peyton asked, looking over at Lucas as the two of them laughed.

"Oh, it's was something one of the guys Haley tutored said."

"Ah."

"Y'know, you should smile more often." commented Lucas, as he looked over at Peyton as she brushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear with a smile on her face.

"What?"

"Happy. It looks good on you."

* * *

The Burning Boat festival was the next night, and it seemed like most of Tree Hill was out at the waterfront for the festivities – it was a rare sight that so many people were in the same place for something other than the Ravens' latest home game. Whilst the Burning Boat itself hadn't been moved from where it had been placed, a stage had been erected close by over the course of the last day, with a single podium located in the stage's centre, behind which Tree Hill High's basketball coach & one of the most widely respected members of the community, Brian 'Whitey' Durham, was standing & about to speak about the ceremony.

"Good evening. Usually the master of ceremonies at this deal is Red Legner. But, uh, well… Red died, so what are you gonna do?" the old coach said, prompting scattered laughs throughout the crowd. "Now, every year we have a Burning Boat, and every year people find things to toss into it. I guess if everything was perfect, we wouldn't be human."

As Whitey's speech continued, Peyton made her way through the crowd, hoping to find Haley or Lucas & silently ruing that they didn't decide on a place to meet beforehand. As the leggy blonde made her way through the crowd, she didn't take the time to notice who she'd just pushed past.

Nathan.

Before the raven haired Scott could say anything, Peyton had spotted one of the two people she was looking for. His eyes fixed on Peyton, Nathan spotted Lucas as the elder of the two brothers fired quick glances around the crowd. As Lucas did so, the two brothers spotted each other at roughly the same time & the two brothers glared at each, no love lost between them.

It was safe to say that both boys were thinking "My life would so much easier if I could just throw _you_ on the fire" at that moment.

Whilst neither he nor Nathan diverted their attention from the other, Lucas spotted Peyton & his expression switched from the glare directed at Nathan to a warm smile directed at Peyton. When Nathan realised that his ex was now friends with his hated brother, he momentarily let his mask slip & a hurt expression briefly appeared on his face before being replaced with a scowl, no longer directed in the direction of the two blondes.

"So, I'm thinking we should've probably decided to meet somewhere before this started."

Peyton laughed in response to Lucas unwittingly repeating her own thoughts from minutes earlier, before they proceeded to make their way out of Nathan's line of sight & to another part of the crowd, neither blonde looking in the direction that her companion had been looking when she found him, as Whitey reached the end of his speech.

"I guess, uh, it's not every day that we get a shot at starting over and putting our feet on the right path. That said, I guess we better get to the rat killing."

A few seconds after Whitey's speech finished, the Burning Boat was set aflame by the basketball coach as he wielded a large torch to complete the task, prompting cheers & applause from the crowd. As the boat & everything in it were incinerated by the rapidly spreading flame, Lucas & Peyton found Haley, sitting alone on some steps watching the dancing flames in front of them before Lucas sat down next to her, with Peyton on the other side of the boy.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Nice bracelet." chuckled Lucas at the childish piece of jewellery adorning his best friend's wrist, to which she could only laugh uncomfortably.

After a moment of silence, Lucas decided to broach the subject of Haley's whereabouts earlier in the day.

"Where were you this morning?"

"Uh, just tutoring."

"Oh, yeah? Anyone I know?"

" _Don't say that I never gave you anything."_

Haley hesitated for a moment, before giving Lucas an answer - "No."

The blonde boy didn't think anything of it. Peyton, however, picked up that Haley was hiding something & gave her a look for a moment, before returning her attention to the Burning Boat.

* * *

" _How Good It Can Be" by The 88, from the album 'Kind of Light'_


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** So... There was kind of a delay with this chapter.

Namely because I deleted it & rewrote it multiple times. And then went back, reread the first chapters as I had posted them and realised I wasn't too happy with how certain parts had turned out. So I pulled a George Lucas & rewrote the first chapter to better fit with how the rest of the story had been written, and expanded the second & third chapters. And _then_ I cut what I wanted to keep from my last draft of this chapter and promptly rewrote the damn thing again.

With that in mind, you should probably go back & read the new versions of those chapters before continuing.

 **Chapter 4: Calling All Angels**

Burning Boat was just over a week ago.

In that week, Lucas had seen Haley hugging Nathan. With the reasons behind the recent break-up of Nathan & Peyton still fresh in his mind, and the fact that Nathan had spent the last sixteen years of his life treating him as if he was something that he'd stepped in, Lucas had flipped out & accused Haley of being a backstabber. Needless to say, Haley didn't take kindly to the accusation, and had refused to talk to Lucas since then – not that he'd wanted to talk to her.

Karen had asked Lucas if Nathan was really worth throwing away his friendship with Haley, and Keith had pointed out that Haley wasn't the type of person to do what Lucas was accusing her of, but the boy simply had the same argument every time – Nathan's a bad guy.

As if that was justification for everything.

Peyton, to her credit, had tried to stay out of it. When Lucas went to her & tried to get her to back him up, the curly blonde pointed out that it was Haley's mistake to make, and all she could do was tell Haley to be careful about letting Nathan get too close – plus, since Lucas had just yelled at Haley rather than listen to her side of the story, there could be a reasonable explanation.

Of course, she was the one who actually got Lucas to stop acting like an ass, and she was left wondering why she could never do the same thing with Nathan.

Peyton's words about telling Lucas to _talk_ to Haley were still on his mind as he opened up Karen's Cafe that morning to bring in the bundle of THUD magazine's latest issue that was left on the cafe's doorstep once a week. Whilst the cafe didn't open for another hour, it had become a tradition in recent years for Lucas to stop by on the days that saw magazines delivered & move the delivery inside & off the doorstep, before someone arrived to open up the cafe for business. Usually, it would be Karen, but sometimes her business partner (and sister-in-law) Deb would be the one to do so.

That arrangement still seemed odd to Lucas – whilst Karen had been pregnant with Lily, Deb had volunteered to help the other Scott family by taking over when Karen went on her maternity leave, and it had just stuck. The fact that it pissed Dan off was a bonus – it was hardly a secret amongst the Scott family (and probably some of the other residents of Tree Hill) that the only reason that Deb was still with Dan was to protect Nathan.

Dropping the bundle of magazines onto the counter, Lucas proceeded to pull a pair of scissors from behind the cash register & cut the thick string holding the literature in place, before taking the first issue of THUD from the pile & immediately flipping through the pages until he found Peyton's latest comic strip.

Whilst the past few strips had been a biting commentary on the fickleness of high school popularity, this one was different: a series of traffic lights changing from green to red, with the final panel being a repeat of the third, this time captioned with the words "PEOPLE ALWAYS LEAVE." As he looked at the images in confusion, Lucas' attention was caught by the bell above the door chiming as it opened, and he looked up to see Haley making a swift retreat back on to the street. After nearly a week of not talking to his best friend, Lucas quickly ran after her.

"Haley, how long are we going to do this?"

"Do what?"

"Avoid each other."

"You tell me. _You're_ the one upset." she responded in an accusatory tone of voice.

"And you're the one who lied to me."

"I don't know what to say to you, Luke."

"Just explain to me why you were with Nathan." he demanded. "I mean, considering the past sixteen years, and what he's done in the past few weeks…"

"I can't."

"You know how I feel about him, Haley." the blonde spat out, before turning to leave in frustration.

"Lucas, fine! Yes, I know how you feel about him. But there is something you don't know." Haley responded, finally getting fed up with Lucas' continued hostility. "I'm his tutor."

"What?" replied Lucas, stunned.

"I'm tutoring him." Haley repeated, before turning & leaving her best friend standing in the empty street. Before he could go after Haley, Lucas heard tires screeching from around the other side of the corner that the cafe was on, and turned around to see a Mercury Comet shaped blur fly though the junction in front of him. Quickly making his way to the corner, Lucas could only watch as he saw a familiar set of blonde curls speed through red light after red light, a shocked expression on his face.

* * *

Later that day, Peyton was busy at her locker when Nathan approached her for the first time since she dumped his stuff at his front door when she ended things once and for good.

"You're not still mad at me, are you?" questioned the raven haired boy, apprehensively.

"I'm not mad. We're just over." the blonde responded in a sombre tone of voice, before walking away. As she walked past Lucas, she greeted him with a simple "Hey" and carried on walking as the boy quickly looked around trying to find the recognisable blonde curls, only to catch a glimpse of Haley & Nathan talking in front of the Tutoring Centre. Incensed, but with no motivation for another argument with Haley on the subject, Lucas could only shoot a venomous glare at the two.

As she continued to make her way down the hallway, Peyton once again found herself being approached by one of the two people she didn't want to talk to.

"Peyton, wait! Why won't you let me apologise to you, it's been two weeks!"

Whilst Brooke was still clearly upset over the status of her friendship with Peyton, her frustration with Peyton's continued refusal to let her apologise was becoming more & more apparent.

"It's not brain surgery, Brooke." the blonde coldly replied, her own frustration that Brooke couldn't (or maybe at this point, it was more fitting to say refused to) take the hint that she wasn't getting forgiveness anytime soon.

"Okay, what's with the attitude?"

"What's with your life?" Peyton responded, the coldness in her voice giving way to a more acidic tone. "Seriously, aren't you embarrassed that the most important thing in your world is some stupid cheer?"

"Look, I'm really sorry about what happened with me and Nathan, but-"

"You think this is about Nathan?!" Peyton spat out incredulously, "You're not even close! You're not even in the neighborhood of close!"

"Okay, then, what's wrong?" the confused brunette questioned, as more people in the hallway started to take notice of the argument.

"What's wrong is how… pointless all of this is."

"Stop saying that!"

"No, because it's true!" the curly blonde responded, her mask slipping as her tone became increasingly upset as she continued talking. "What difference does it make if you sleep with the popular guy, or you go to the right party, or you know the moves to some moronic cheer to do at some lame-ass game I could care less about!"

Before Brooke could respond, Peyton stormed off down the hallway. Eventually it was discovered that Peyton had cut out of school shortly afterwards.

* * *

"Brooke!"

It had been a day since Peyton snapped at Brooke in the hallway. A day since Peyton had cut out of school, and she was nowhere to be found on the Tree Hill High campus today, either. In spite of being told that they were definitively over the day before, Nathan was still concerned over his ex-girlfriend's state of mind & called after the other person who would be to blame for the blonde's current state of mind.

"Hey. Have you seen Peyton?"

"Not since she went psycho on me in the hall yesterday. Why?" the brunette responded, her anger apparent in her voice.

"Because she's not in school. And she won't pick up at home or on her cell."

"Well… maybe she's out kicking the homeless."

"Brooke, we both know that we deserve a lot worse from Peyton after what we did." the boy responded as the angry brunette tried to walk away, only to turn around when Nathan spoke.

"Maybe you do, but you guys were broken up! I didn't do anything wrong!"

"If that were true, you would have told Peyton about us after it had happened, and you know it."

This time, Nathan was the one to walk away, and Brooke knew he was right.

* * *

Across town, Peyton was sat on a bench in the middle of a cemetery, trying (And failing) to light a cigarette.

"A lot of smokers in this place."

Peyton looked up to see Whitey Durham, coach of the Tree Hill Ravens, standing in front of her. Whitey had a reputation for being tough, but at the same time, it was clear that he tried to be more to his players than just a basketball coach.

"I don't really smoke." she responded, as if she felt the need to justify herself. "I just figured that since Nathan and I broke up, I've got room for a new bad habit."

Whitey laughed at the blonde's sarcasm, before speaking in friendlier tone than when he first arrived. "Mind if I sit down?"

Peyton didn't say anything in response, she just looked at the ground & patted the bench next to her.

"She was quite a gal, your mother."

"Yeah." Peyton responded, in a whisper.

"She used to lead cheers for my team, too. And you've got her looks."

"I don't really remember her." she replied, as she tried to stifle a sob from coming out.

"Oh, I do. She was a wily one. Your old man didn't stand a chance."

The two laughed for a moment, reflecting on the relationship between Peyton's parents. Whilst she had trouble remembering her mother, she had no trouble remembering how she was with her father.

"So what are you doing here?" Peyton asked, breaking the silence that had arisen. "Making a reservation?"

"You better watch it!" the basketball coach laughed, before he suddenly took a more serious – yet still mournful – tone with the blonde. "No. No. My wife, Camilla, is buried out here. Right over behind those trees. I couldn't get in a word edgewise while she was alive so I come out here and visit, tell her about things."

"You think she's listening?"

" Oh, yeah. I know she's listening." Whitey responded, before pausing for a moment. "I lost my wife just about the time your mother passed away. That always make this week a tough one."

"They're all tough."

"Yeah." he whispered, as Peyton rubbed one of her eyes to stop the tears from falling.

* * *

After school, Lucas was putting in a shift at the cafe when he saw – Peyton, sat in her car & parked at a green light. His mind immediately went to the prior day's morning, and the memory of Peyton speeding through red light after red light. He took one look around the mostly empty cafe, before running out through the door & across the street to Peyton's parked car, hoping he got to her before the light changed.

"Why do you do this?" he questioned, with his attempt at hiding the panic in his voice making him sound like he was out of breath. After a few seconds where Peyton didn't even acknowledge his presence, Lucas just opened the door & sat in the passenger seat.

"If I were you, I'd get back out now."

"Not until you tell me what's going on."

Once again, Peyton didn't respond to Lucas' words – this time, however, it was because the traffic light turned red & the curly blonde's attention was entirely on the accelerator pedal, her car shooting through the red light with a loud screech of the tires.

"Come on, slow down, Peyton. Come on!" the boy demanded, his panic clear in his voice despite his attempt to hide it, as he reached out & placed a hand on the dashboard of the Comet, attempting to brace himself.

"Slow the car down!" he shouted, as they flew across another intersection on a red light. It was then, however, that he finally saw the pain in her eyes. "Peyton, slow the car down."

"She was driving to school to pick me up. She was late, so she ran a red light." Peyton finally spoke, as the third red light flew overhead & the fourth rapidly approaching.

"It was one light at the wrong split second, and it ended for her." she continued, putting her foot down on the accelerator in order to get through the fourth junction before the lights turned from red, and nearly causing an accident – ironically enough, with someone trying to get through the lights _before_ they turned to red – in the process.

Finally, Peyton pulled her car to a stop, as Lucas could only look over at her with concern on his face, his original question finally answered.

"My mom ran one red light." she spoke, before turning to Lucas, looking utterly broken. "I run them all the time and nothing happens. It's not fair."

"No, it's not."

"You can get out now."

"Or I can stay if you want."

Peyton took a moment, and looked over at Lucas – heartbreak evident in her eyes.

"No. You can't."

After a few seconds, Lucas got out of the car, his gaze never moving away from the blonde behind the wheel. He didn't _want_ to get out... He just wasn't sure what else he could actually do, as Peyton drove away.

* * *

"Hi."

The next day, Peyton actually turned up at Tree Hill High, and didn't cut out after class. Mostly because she didn't arrive until after the final classes of the day, but still. It was the easiest way to avoid the people she didn't want to deal with (Read: all of them) whilst she went on her way to the one person she wanted to speak to.

Whitey had to laugh, the moment he realised the former cheerleader was standing in the doorway of his office as he reviewed some new plays for the team to run in the next practice. "You never know who you're going to see in the boys' locker room these days."

"Or what you'll see." the blonde dryly responded. "I thought maybe we could talk. Unless… you're too busy."

"No, sure. We can talk." he responded, an understanding smile on his face. "So, what's on your mind, Blondie?"

"How long have you been coaching?" Peyton asked, as she took a seat opposite the coach.

"Too long."

"Do you ever wonder about it?"

"What?"

"I mean, you've spent your whole life watching boy's play a game." she reasoned, prompting Whitey to burst out laughing.

"Well, I'd prefer to think I was teaching them to play." Whitey replied, still laughing, before he let out a sigh. "Yeah, sometimes I think about... the conversations that went unfinished between me and my wife... holidays I missed because I was off coaching somewhere. That's when I come closest to thinking it was a mistake."

"Do you miss her?"

"Every day." he responded without a moment's hesitation.

"Peyton, it's hard to lose somebody. I spent a lot of time searching for reasons or answers. But you can't find what's not there. It just happened. Y'know, I used to love cigars but I haven't smoked one since I lost Camilla. I don't even carry matches anymore. I don't guess I've been much help to you. But I do know one thing. Your mother's proud of you."

"Thanks..." Peyton responded, barely above a whisper before getting up to leave.

"Take care of yourself, kiddo."

* * *

It had been a few days since their last argument, and Lucas had finally decided to talk to Haley so that they could patch things up – it'd been Lucas & Haley against the world since Second Grade, and it made no sense to let Nathan change that now. And if Lucas kept acting like an ass over who Haley tutored, then it was just going to be Lucas vs. Everyone.

Plus, Haley was literally the only person still willing to listen to him talk about how Peyton Sawyer is literally the perfect woman.

He knew she wasn't tutoring today, so that meant she was working at the Cafe – and seeing as she was on break when he got there, Lucas knew that there was only going to be one place to find Haley.

The Rooftop Mini-Golf Course.

"Hey."

"Hey."

There was an awkward silence after the two best friends greeted one another, before Haley finally spoke again.

"I really don't want to be like this, Luke."

"How's that?" he asked, prompting Haley to sigh in frustration – Lucas may be her best friend, but _God,_ was he an idiot at times.

"This - us skirting around each other. I mean, we're friends! You know, when you decided to play Nathan at the River Court, even with your HCM... I didn't understand it and I told you that, but I supported you."

"I know." Lucas responded, matter-of-factly.

"So… support me!" Haley pleaded. "When I'm tutoring someone, and they get it, and that light goes on, I feel good! I feel worthy. The same way that you feel when you play on the River Court."

"You're just tutoring him?" he questioned apprehensively.

"I am just tutoring him." Haley responded, speaking as if Lucas was a 6 year old who needed something explained as simply as possible. "That's it."

"Okay."

Accepting Haley's answer, Lucas awkwardly raised one of his hands for a first bump, which Haley reciprocated with a roll of her eyes.

"So, spill it, Blondie. What's going on with you & your imaginary girlfriend?"

"I'm guessing you mean Peyton."

"You guessed right." Haley smirked, prompting a sigh from Lucas.

"...We're just friends, Hales."

"But you wish you were more than that."

"Of course I do, it's _Peyton Sawyer_." Lucas responded, putting particular emphasis on Peyton's name as he did so, to Haley's amusement. "It's just... We've only just become friends, and if she doesn't think about me that way, then..."

Lucas trailed off, but Haley understood the point he was trying to make – he'd rather have Peyton as a friend, than go back to not having any relationship with her.

"Right, but Luke? Girl of your dreams or not, Peyton Sawyer is still just a girl."

* * *

As he made his way to the River Court, Lucas was caught by surprise when he spotted Peyton leaning against one of the girders on the bridge that joined the two halves of Tree Hill, working away in her sketch book. Walking towards the leggy blonde, he stopped dribbling the ball, before speaking cautiously as he removed his earbuds.

"Hey. I've been thinking about you."

"Try a cold shower." she replied, without so much as a glance at the boy. As he let out a groaning laugh in response, she closed her sketchbook before looking over at him. "Sorry. You teed yourself up for that one."

"Yeah, I guess so. How you doing?" Lucas asked, as Peyton stood up from the girder & started walking with him.

"Lets see - Um, I broke up with my boyfriend; my best friend stabbed me in the back; my mom's dead; and... my dad's away on a job."

"What's your dad do?"

"Captains a dredging boat. He's normally here for this warped anniversary but this year, he sent his sympathies in an email."

Despite not really getting into the subject, it was clear from the bitterness in her voice as she explained her father's absence that she wanted him there. Lucas could only mentally note that absent fathers could be added to the list of similarities between the two, even if the circumstances were different.

"You know, I would gladly erase my dad if it would bring back your mom." spoke Lucas, breaking the silence that was starting to encompass the two blondes as he stopped & turned to face Peyton. "I wish I could change it for you."

For a moment, Peyton quickly diverted her eyes away from Lucas, not wanting to him to see how much his words affected her, but she couldn't. By the time he had finished speaking, she couldn't do it.

"Thank you."

And there it was. No sarcasm, no witty comeback – just a teenage girl who'd been dealt a bad hand in life letting someone past her walls, even if it was only for a few seconds.

For a moment that seemed to last much longer, the two blondes held their eye contact – if ever there was a perfect moment for Lucas to tell Peyton how he felt about her, it was that.

"I gotta go." the girl said, almost as if she realised that herself. But her statement wasn't rude or anything, it was more like... she finally saw Lucas, not as a loner or writer or Nathan's brother, but as someone who could truly understand her if she let him in. And that was terrifying.

"Hey, Peyton?"

"Don't ruin it, okay?" she responded, turning around & giving Lucas a genuine heartfelt smile. The first one she'd worn since the mess with Brooke & Nathan started, and the second one Lucas Scott had brought to her face since they started whatever _this_ was.

* * *

Game day.

Used to be that Peyton Sawyer would be in her cheerleaders uniform & awaiting tee off with Brooke.

But that's not her life anymore.

Now that she had no reason to be at the Field House to cheer for the Ravens, Peyton was instead working on her latest masterpiece.

A literal black void consuming the entirety of the canvas.

The thought that she had been listening to "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones far too often had crossed her mind. That thought was immediately replaced by "That is a really good song." and Peyton carried on painting.

As simplistic as the painting was, Peyton was laser focused on it when she heard a knock on her bedroom door frame.

"What do you call that?" Nathan asked, as he looked upon the pitch black canvas.

"Love." Peyton responded coldly, not even turning to look at Nathan to see his response. "What do you want, Nathan?"

"It's what I don't want." Peyton rolled her eyes at his response, before Nathan continued. "I don't want this for us."

"Maybe you should've thought of that sooner."

"Yeah, I know." Nathan replied, talking several steps in his ex's bedroom so that she couldn't slam the door in his face. "I've been thinking about how we were when we started going out... Like that day at Wrightsville Beach; The nights here in your room."

Peyton had to stop painting as Nathan spoke. Not because she was considering what he said, but because he had the audacity to make a sex tape with her best friend & then try to convince her to take him back. The second Nathan stopped talking, Peyton turned to face him – not with anger or hate in her eyes, just... a bitter coldness.

"We haven't been that way in a long time."

"We could be."

Peyton turned back ton her painting, an insulted look on her face that Nathan really thought she would take him back.

"Come on, Peyton. I've been thinking about you. I know you've been thinking about me.

"I've actually had a lot going on lately."

"Yeah, me too. My dad's been going crazy about this father/son game, and my mom… it's like ever since she came back she's been wanting to hang out.

Peyton couldn't believe that Nathan thought that she was giving him an invitation to bitch about his life. _"Oh, poor me. My daddy loves basketball more than me, but he still loves me more than my brother who he abandoned at birth; and my mommy wants to spend time with me."_ she thought.

"I really can't hear this right now." she snapped at him, an incredulous look on her face.

"Alright. Well, how about you come to the game? Maybe we could hang out afterwards."

Unable to believe that she used to date someone so oblivious to her feelings, Peyton turned back to her canvas without so much as a word.

"I miss you, Peyton."

"Did you know that my mom died tonight? Seven years ago?"

Peyton didn't turn to face Nathan - she didn't even care what his reaction to what she'd just said was. Nathan just stood there, dumbfounded.

He had no idea what had happened to Peyton's mother.

"You didn't know because you never asked."

"Peyton, I-"

"Nathan, just... Go."

And with that, Nathan walked out of Peyton's bedroom, without so much as a goodbye. Not that she wanted one.

Later, when she knew the Ravens would be playing, and the streets of Tree Hill would be fairly empty, Peyton set off in the Comet again.

Thoughts ran though her head, but she couldn't really focus on any of them. Every time she tried, her mind went back to her mom's death.

One red light.

One mistake.

One girl growing up without a mother.

As she approached the road where her mother died, she didn't really think about anything. It was just her mind replaying the last moments she had with her mother; a 9 year old girl watching her mother die because of one stupid mistake.

Before she knew it, she was where she needed to be, and pulled up to a set of green traffic lights.

And then, the green lights faded away, and Peyton put the Comet in gear & slammed her foot on the accelerator as the red lights lit up above her.

She got one foot past the lights, before she slammed on the breaks to avoid being hit.

Suddenly, the reality of what she was doing hit home.

And Peyton Sawyer broke.

* * *

Peyton didn't know how she wound up outside of Karen's Cafe. Hell, she didn't remember anything after she nearly got herself killed by tempting fate one too many times.

As she got out of the Comet, she wrapped her arms around herself & looked around aimlessly.

* * *

As he left his mom's cafe, Lucas was planning to head to the River Court. He knew that Skills & the other guys were probably going to be there, since they'd always rejected the high school basketball scene as a sign of solidarity with Lucas.

Lucas didn't even take one step in that direction – he saw Peyton, in tears. In seconds, Lucas had made his way over to the blonde girl, who only realised he was there as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Lucas, I-" she managed too speak, before just trailing off into sobs.

"Peyton, hey – what's wrong?" he asked, before realising she was in no state to actually give him an answer & pulling her into a hug. "Come on, let's get you home."

The two blondes made the drive from the cafe to the Sawyer home in silence, with Lucas behind the wheel of the Comet as Peyton was in no state to drive herself – at least, that's what Lucas had decided & she hadn't argued. As they pulled up to her home, Lucas took a look at Peyton, and felt his heart break for her.

"You wanna talk about it?" he asked, only to receive a quick shake of the head in response.

After a few seconds, Lucas got out of the car, and walked around to the passenger's side where Peyton was sat, and helped her to her feet before putting an arm around her shoulders as they walked up to her front door. Peyton took a few steps into her home, before turning back to the boy.

"Thanks, Luke."

"You don't need to thank me." he replied, smiling reassuringly as he spoke. "You sure you're going to be okay? I can stay if you want."

Peyton stood in silence for a few moments, remembering his similar words from a few days earlier, before grabbing the collar of Lucas' jacket & crashing her lips into his. Needless to say, the boy was stunned but once he came to his senses that yes, Peyton Sawyer _was_ kissing him, Lucas pulled away.

"Peyt-" he tried to speak, only for Peyton to cut him off with second kiss. This time, Lucas gave in to his lust for the leggy blonde, and deepened the kiss by pulling her towards him, Peyton taking the opportunity to press her body against his.

After a good few moments, Peyton finally broke the kiss, and looked Lucas in the eye.

There were no words spoken. The two blondes just held their gaze into each other's eyes before Peyton took Lucas' hand & pulled him into the empty house, the boy throwing the door shut as he passed through.

To Lucas, everything after Peyton's lips met his for the second time was a blur. He'd gone from kissing her on the front porch, to being lead upstairs by the hand, to _more_ kissing as she lead him to her bedroom.

"Don't need this" the girl mumbled against his lips, as she forcibly removed Lucas' jacket from his shoulders & pushed it to the ground, before pushing him backwards so he was sat on her bed as she removed her own jacket, their lips never separating.

"I've wanted this for so long." Lucas said, breaking the kiss as Peyton climbed onto her bed so that she was straddling the boy as they renewed the kiss before she pulled his t-shirt over his head.

"Me too." Peyton replied, her voice thick with lust. "And now we can have it."

"No, no, no." Lucas interrupted, breaking the kiss.

"I don't mean just that. I want this, y'know?" he said, placing his hand over her heart. "I want to be here. I want to have everything with you. I want it all. I want us, Peyton."

As Lucas spoke, he didn't notice the panicked look spread across Peyton's face. Not until she backed away, leaving a confused Lucas.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"This isn't supposed to be that." she responded, picking up the boy's jacket & shoving it into his chest with the t-shirt she still had in her hand.

"Peyton-"

"Why couldn't you just leave it alone?" Peyton asked, before quickly making her way to the door to her room, unable to look at Lucas. "I want you to leave."

"Peyt-"

"I mean it, get out." she repeated, trying to sound angry to hide the distress in her voice but failing miserably.

Lucas sat there for a moment, still confused as to what had happened, before doing as Peyton asked & walking to the door.

"I'm sorry." he said, the two blondes unable to look at one another.

As Lucas left, Peyton didn't watch him leave. She remained rooted against the wall, until she heard the click of the front door being pulled shut behind Lucas, at which point she sunk to the floor in tears.

* * *

" _Calling All Angels" by Train, from the album 'My Private Nation'_


End file.
